Zombies and Cheerleaders Wiki:Manual of Style
The Manual of Style (often abbreviated MoS or MOS) is a style guide for all articles and official documents. It establishes our house style, to help editors produce articles with consistent, clear, and precise language, layout, and formatting. The goal is to make the encyclopedia easier and more intuitive to use. Consistency in style and formatting promotes clarity and cohesion; this is especially important within an article. Article titles, sections and headings Article titles An article title is a convenient label for the article, which distinguishes it from other articles. It need not be the name of the subject; many article titles are descriptions of the subject. The following points are critical to formatting article titles: * Use "sentence case" or "sentence-style": The initial letter of a title is capitalized (except in rare cases, such as ). Otherwise, capital letters are used only where they would be used in a normal sentence ( , not ). * Use the singular form: Article titles should be singular e.g. , not . * Don't begin with articles: Do not use , , or as the first word ( , not ), unless by convention it is an inseparable part of a name ( ) or it is part of the title of a work ( , ). * Use full names without ranks for characters: Articles about characters should avoid the title or rank, unless the character is known only by the title e.g. , not . * Use parentheses to distinguish similar articles: e.g. , , or . Article sections * Headings should not refer redundantly to the subject of the article, or to higher-level headings, unless doing so is shorter or clearer. ( is preferable to when his refers to the subject of the article; headings can be assumed to be about the subject unless otherwise indicated.) * Headings should not normally contain links, especially where only part of a heading is linked. * Citations should not be placed within or on the same line as section and subsection headings. * Headings should not contain images. * Headings should not contain questions. Spelling American spelling should be used on all canon encyclopedia articles on , on any template transcribed on articles, on transcripts and on all official projects and blog posts. This is to reflect the American origin of Zombies and Cheerleaders. There are the following exceptions: * Regional variations in spelling may be used in all other contexts on , such as comments, talk pages, user pages, and blog posts. * If quoting a source, never alter any part of the quotation, even if it does not use American spelling. Capital letters Do not use capitals for emphasis Do not use capital letters for emphasis; where wording alone cannot provide the emphasis, use italics. :Incorrect: (or ) . :Correct: . Capitalization of "The" Generally do not capitalize the definite article in the middle of a sentence: (not ). However there are some conventional exceptions, including most titles of artistic works: (but ). Titles of people * In generic use, apply lower case for words such as president, king, and emperor ( ; ; ). * In parts of a person's title, begin such words with a capital letter ( , not ). Standard or commonly used names of an office are treated as proper nouns ( ; ; ). Calendar items * Months, days of the week, and holidays start with a capital letter ( , ; refers only to the US Independence Day—otherwise or ). * Seasons are in lower case ( ; ; ), except in personifications or in proper names for periods or events ( ; ). Flora and fauna Flora and fauna should be in lower case e.g. . An exception to this is if a character is known by name of their species. : Institutions * Names of institutions ( ) are proper nouns and require capitals. * Generic words for institutions (university, college, hospital, high school) do not take capitals: :: * Political or geographical units such as cities, towns, and countries follow the same rules: as proper nouns they require capitals; but as generic words (sometimes best omitted for simplicity) they do not. :: Italics * Use italics for the titles of works of literature and art, such as books, pamphlets, films (including short films), television series, music albums, and paintings e.g. . The titles of articles, chapters, songs, television episodes, and other short works are not italicized; they are enclosed in double quotation marks e.g. . * Italicize only the elements of the sentence affected by the emphasis. Do not italicize surrounding punctuation e.g. , not . Punctuation Apostrophes Consistent use of the straight (or typewriter) apostrophe ( ) is recommended, as opposed to the curly (or typographic) apostrophe ( ). * Use double quotation marks: Enclose quotations with double quotation marks e.g. Enclose quotations within quotations with single quotation marks e.g. * When the title of an article appearing in the lead paragraph requires quotation marks (for example, the title of a song or an episode), the quotation marks should not be in boldface, as they are not part of the title e.g. . Place all punctuation marks inside the quotation marks if they are part of the quoted material and outside if they are not. This practice is sometimes referred to as logical punctuation. This is more in keeping with a principle of minimal change. This punctuation system does not require placing final periods and commas outside the quotation marks all the time, but rather maintaining their original positions in (or absence from) the quoted material. : : When a quoted sentence fragment ends in a period, some judgment is required: if the fragment communicates a complete sentence, the period can be placed inside. The period should be omitted if the quotation is in the middle of a sentence. :: : If the sequence of juxtaposed punctuation marks seems distracting or untidy, try an acceptable alternative. ::